NCangler

Originally Posted by Doc_Love

My oldest son Matthew (now 13) and I hit the water running Tuesday morning (8/14/2012) at the High Point City Lake Park. We had huge expectations after recently going thru the Jerry Condrey & Mike (RiverRat) school of bassin' over the past couple of weeks out there.

They open at 7AM, we had the car unloaded and our gear in the rental boat before the office doors were open. The air temp was in low 70's in ther early morning, no clue on the water temp .. no electronics on board. No wind at all in the early morning.
The water was very stained following a couple of evening storms that pounded the area. Some spots were quite muddy as seen in the wake of the trolling motor.


We 1st went straight to the old rock dam and spent an hour, no strikes at all. We thru c-rigs, t-rigs (zoom ultri vibe craws and rage craws and top water lures (buzz & frogs around the grass). We then slowly moved up the shore line on the north side of the "island" chucking our makeshift ancor (dumbells ziptied to a nylon rope) out as we hit all of the trees on the way to the creek endlet. Matthew hooked one just after 10:30, we saw it jump, looked to be a nice 2 lb'r but came unbuttoned halfway on the retrive to the boat. He got it on a zoom Black mag finesse worm, t-rig with 1/4 oz tungsten weight. We hit several more trees with no luck and arrived at the creek inlet at 11:30.

By now Mr Sunshine was out to stay and the wind picked up just a tick. I thru at a tree that overhangs the shore line providing a nice shady spot, 2nd cast BANG!!!! Fish On!!! Caught on a zoom black / red spec fat albert grub t-rig with 1/4oz tungsten weight.


2.15 LBS

we moved up the creek just a little where it gets very shallow in spots, I was throwing at the trees and shore line, Matthew was throwing in the center of the creek. He hooked 3 Bass in 45 minutes ranging in weight from 1.5 to 2.1, catching all on the zoom Black mag finesse worm, t-rig with 1/4 oz tungsten weight.



I was so excited and very proud of Matthew!!

He then caught a fish that we are not sure what it is......... Guys feel free to comment.



Shortly after 12:30 I was throwing at some rocks the lined the shore line behind some houses, I felt a pretty good strike, I remember telling Matthew, I think Big Momma is lurking around here some where. On my next cast I hit the rock bouncing the lure straight up inturn creating a small back lash on my braided line. Very quickly untangled the line, as I got the line orginized I noticed the line in the water was taking off, I set the hook like I was preforming a slap shot in hockey. The fight was on ... she was a beauty!!! Caught her on a Strike King Rage tail craw watermelon red flake on my braid set up, power pro 65 lb (red color) with 17 lb 100% floro Vicius on Berkley Lightning Rod MH / Quantum KVD PT 7.0 Burner reel.


3.7 lbs

For most, 5 fish, 3 of em keepers may be considered a slow day but for us, Thats a Very Good Day!!! Keep in mind I returned to fishing April of 2011 after over 25 years of no fishing at all. Catching small fish all day still excites us!!!! ha ha ha ha ha

I am absolutely falling in love with that place.

Now for the story of the day ... as I posted in another thread about Mike aka RiverRat hooking the biggest bass i have ever seen. Well, I went to the same exact place just to see if I would get lucky enough to catch this big ole thing. As dumb luck would have it I succeded I actually did it. OMG what a mule!!!! Hit a ton, Ran like a horse, Jumped like a whale .... I hooked it on a zoom black / red spec fat albert grub t-rig with 1/4oz tungsten weight 12 lb 100% floro Vicious Quantum Response-micro guide 7ft MED with Quantum PT 7.0 Burner reel. I got it right up to the boat, Matthew leaned over the boat to grab the line, he jumped back and said, "Daddy, what is that, is it a catfish, that is not a bass"!!! The head was broad and the body was very long. We didn't get a long look at it because the line snapped off and off she went. Holy cow, what a fight!!

Back at the marina I was sharing this story to the fellas and he said it was prolly a bowfin .... what the heck is a bowfin, i thought that was a movie staring Eddie Murphy & Steve Martin........

didn't know nothing about them, he showed us a picture of one that was caught out there last year .... all I saw was teeth!!!!! WOW, were we lucky not to have Matthew try to lip her to get her in the boat, that would have not been a pretty site.